The Washington Times Takes the Top Prize of the SPJ DC Dateline Awards Contest

Bill Plante, Elizabeth Drew and Jonetta Rose Barras are inducted into the hall of fame.

The DC Pro Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists announced the winners of its Dateline Awards Contest, with John Solomon and Kelly Riddell of The Washington Times taking home the top prize, the Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award. Winners for that award are chosen from among the winners and finalists of the other award categories.

Solomon and Riddell’s winning piece, The Clintons’ Swedish Jackpot, was originally an investigative category winner, described as a “meticulously researched piece on how Bill Clinton’s charitable fundraising and speechmaking intertwined with Hillary Clinton’s official governmental work overseas,” by a judge.

At the awards dinner last evening, the SPJ DC Pro Chapter also inducted three journalists into its hall of fame, which honors journos who have produced “strong journalism for at least 25 years in Washington.” They were CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, New York Review of Books contributor Elizabeth Drew and Washington Post columnist Jonetta Rose Barras.